Imtiaz Sooliman – KZN Floods Update on the latest from the ground
AI: Summary ©
The high death toll of floods in the region is estimated to be between 87 and 85 people, and the loss of family members and food aid is a concern. The road situation is causing damage to schools and infrastructure, and the need for a great rebuilding is being emphasized. The speakers emphasize the importance of finding missing individuals and the potential for harm to people, as well as the need for infrastructure repair and housing after flood events. The road situation is causing damage to schools and infrastructure, and the need for a great rebuilding is being emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Well, gift of the givers is one of the organizations helping on the
ground. Let's speak now to the founder, Dr Imtiaz Suleiman,
Doctor, thank you for being with us as always. When you look at the
death toll and look at this figure, 87 people still missing,
so the death toll could go up considerably already at 461
I guess it reminds us just of the scale of this tragedy, how deadly
these floods were. Do you get a sense of that even now on the
ground in KwaZulu Natal,
good evening, Francis, yes, the death toll is far higher than
that. When the figures were on 337
we had already set up a Muslim person's line, and at that point,
within hours, there were another 237
people missing, when the debt tolls around 353 50. So the
figures are now sort of balancing out from what the Premier is
saying and what we have found on the ground, and to answer your
question, and of course, that was from what people had told us
directly, but a lot of people probably could not communicate
with us, because many families are washed away. When our teams went
around to the different areas, they were told the water came like
a very angry sea. It washed people away to have neighbors. All of
them disappeared. So lots of people disappeared quickly, and
there may be no account of those people, if you just buy analogy,
if you think that the water and sort of reflect that the water
could take shipping containers and throw them and throw them against
the bridge, what did it do to informal settlements, houses that
are built of cardboard, corrugated sheet and plastics, so many people
must have been washed away. So the death toll is still probably much
higher than that figure, and we will never know to answer the
second part of your question, but each day, as you go around, you
realize the extent of the damage. You know, when the water is down
and floods are gone, you can see the amount of infrastructure
damage in the various areas and the and the nature and the extent
of the infrastructure damage in the roads, in the houses, in the
schools, in the health facilities, the water plants. It's huge. The
destruction has been probably the it is the biggest natural disaster
we've had in our history. Sure, it's just completely, unbelievably
awful when you talk about whole families being washed away. But to
return that eight to that 87 people still missing. Have you met
any families who are missing a loved one? I mean, what do you do
now with two months down the line? When do you give up? Are there any
searches, or has that that been stopped? And then, I guess you
just hope bodies turn up? How does it work?
Well, you at some point you take a decision that search, and it's not
rescues, recovery. There's no There's no point, because you know
the water has washed our way into the sea, or the deeply buried in
ground, and you know that they completely decomposed. We still
get messages people saying we have four people that are missing. My
child is missing. They give you areas, but those areas have been
searched before. Teams have gone there before, but people are
always looking. You know, it's a natural human instinct. You want
closure. You want to find the body of your child or your husband or
your father or your brother, and unfortunately, in most cases, so
late in the day, you're not going to find them. Yes to answer your
other question. Some bodies do come out. Have still been coming
out. You know, it's been a lucky for those families, lucky on the
one side that the body is found. Secondly, you got another point.
It's very sad that the person is diseased, but that's the reality.
After the second week, we tell people it's very unlikely you will
find anybody alive unless they caught up somewhere else. They're
not in the water. They stuck somewhere and, you know, and they
didn't have a cell phone or communication and that did happen
where somebody called us a week later and said we found the family
member. They had no phone, they they were still stranded anywhere,
and they got hold of us, and of course, to be asked them to check
all the mortuaries, check the hospitals, and as, as has been
mentioned in your report, there are people that have not been
identified yet. The possibility is that those people are not
identified, maybe their family members have also passed on. Sure.
Give us a sense of the scale of need. You spoke about the huge
infrastructural damage that is going to take a long time to
repair, but give us a sense of the scale of need in terms of people
who don't have water, some who don't have homes, who are still in
those community centers who are still relying on food aid?
Well, food aid is still going on, not to such big extent anymore.
You know, a lot of people have moved from the centers to their
families or their neighbors, but there's still about 40,000 people
who need homes. The big problem is there hasn't been an intervention
in terms of infrastructure. Yes, the sides of the roads have been
cleaned. Yes, they're moving the rubber out of the way. Yes, the
lands that are being sorted out. Some of the roads are being sorted
out. Some of the water cities are being sorted out. But there's far
more needs to be done in terms of the big roads. There's a huge I
mean, if you drive anywhere, they tell you the roads are closed,
but.
On the m4 the bridges are destroyed. And in the second flood
that came, or the second range that came after the third flood,
back on the m4 the llamas See More, more parts of the bridge
were destroyed. So under the roads have to be recreated many parts of
the province. That's the first thing. Second thing is houses have
to put up. 40,000 people their homes. Nobody has made any effort
to start any homes right now, schools, the school damage, 12 to
600 schools have been affected, and very minimal work has been
done on that. And health facilities, we look at 100 80
million Rand, but of damaged facilities, that hasn't started.
The water situation in togar is now probably 60 days plus where?
When I say people don't have water, which water not coming out
of the taps. Yes, we've put in 15 balls where water tankers are
coming, what bottle water has been coming? But it's not the
conventional way in which you get water from the tap and many other
areas. The water fluctuates. It comes, goes, it comes, goes for
weeks on egg and then we are now drilling balls in areas that were
affected with water even before the first flood came. So there are
areas in KZN that are water deprived, not related to the
floods. There's just no water, yeah, so there's a demand for
water is in many more areas. And you know, we're building those
areas. We're building houses, we're repairing schools. We've
given 50 million of contracts already. Regret the first time
schools, and even in the school itself, we're doing a process,
what is called jetting. Jetting is to be more sand and sludge inside
the storm water drains, which haven't been maintained for years.
And one of the reasons where the schools got very badly flooded is
because of the storm water drains, and we visit cleaning those things
up outside. Doctor, finally and quickly, please, what you're
saying is very concerning. We need a great rebuild here. We knew that
there were low lying bridges. They not only have to be built, but
they have to be built safer that actually put people in danger. So
huge
talk. Well, there's a lot of talk about the infrastructural rebuild.
The premier was talking about donations. Are you engaging with
the provincial government at all? I know it's beyond your purview.
But do you ask questions? Why are these roads and schools and all
these things that you've mentioned not being rebuilt as quickly as
possible?
I don't need to ask them. I know the answer.
There's no money for that. You know, they wait. There's a
discussion going on the one side, they say that the Treasury says
you got to apply for the money from which the governments and the
city council said they applied for the for for the for the money from
the from the Treasury you, you get the feedback from the deputy mayor
that no, it's told that they never applied for the money. So it's a
ping pong is going on between different tiers of government, and
that's one of the major problems with South Africa. It is that the
disasters. It's a disaster in terms of its disaster management.
There's too many structures involved. There's no one clear
coordinated system where you want to press one person press the
button and everybody down the line follows the system. We don't have
that kind of coordinated system, and that's why there's so many
different divisions involved. And the funds are not coming. The
reality is it's simple. You need to build bridges. You need to
build roads. Now yesterday, I heard something very disturbing.
I've I was told that, yes, our contract was given for the roads
and the bridges on the M form, and there were several, several
bidders, and after one of the Budd got it and the other one to the
one that got it to port. So that process is delayed. Again, we keep
having this kind of issues that delays infrastructure, but they
that money is never going to be enough to fix everything up. When
are they going to start building the houses? When they're going to
start repairing the schools? There are whole schools that is very
dangerous for kids to go to. There's no water in areas. There's
no sanitation. It becomes a hygiene issue. The classes are
dangerous, the roads are dangerous, and sub school is so
totally destroyed, which has to be refurbished in huge quantities.
We're talking about 3 million, 6 million, 8 million. Of course,
there's other one fortunate, 30,000 50,000 80,000 but all this
requires a lot of money, and it's besides the 100 and 80 million
required to fix the hospital facilities.
Gift of the givers, founder, Doctor Imtiaz Suleiman, looking at
the sad state of affairs. This is two months after that devastating
fatal flooding in KwaZulu Natal.